Jacob Maris

•Artist:Jacob Maris

•Title: Fishing Boat

•Media: Oil Painting on Canvas

•Dimensions: 1400cm x 1600cm (framed)

•Date:1878

 Jacob Maris .Jacob Maris was a Dutch painter, who with his brothers Willem and Matthijs belonged to what has come to be known as the Hague School of painters.When he was twelve, he took some art lessons and later enrolled in the Hague Academy of Art. An art dealer recognized his talent and saw to it that Jacob was able to work in the studio of Hubertus van Hove. There he painted interiors as well as figurative and genre works. (http://www.askart.com/askart/m/jacob_maris/jacob_maris.aspx)

  

• Statement: "No painter has so well expressed the ethereal effects, bathed in air and light through floating silvery mist, in which painters delight, and the characteristic remote horizons blurred by haze; or again, the grey yet luminous weather of Holland, unlike the dead grey rain of England or the heavy sky of Paris."

- M. Philippe Zilcken   ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Maris)

• Background Information on the art: In the mid-ninteenth century the Dutch fisheries suffered badly from the embargo on herring fishing and general economic climate; by 1855 herring fishing, which had for centuries been a thriving and important trade, was continued by only 140 boats from Scheveningen, Katwijk and Noordwijk. After the embargo on herring fishing was lifted in 1871 and as the economic situation improved during the following decades, the herring fisheries began to experience a new prosperity; by the end of the century the catch was ten times as large as it had been in 1855. the fleet at Scheveningen was responsible for almost half of this. After 1866, most fishing was done from sailing luggers but Scheveningen, which had no harbour of its own until the beginning of the twentieth century, remained faithful to the older type of bluff-blowing fishing boats, which had a flat keel and could be hauled up on the beach by horses. Maris, Mauve, Mesdag and Weissenbruch immortalized these fishing boats in a series of brilliant paintings. The most classical interpretation of the theme is seen in this painting by Jacob Maris, which can also be regarded as a perfect work from the Hague School’s grey period. The blue of the pennant and a touch of red in the boat constitute the only accents of color in this symphony in silvery grey.

( https://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/asset-viewer/fishing-boat/KAHOmYO68O9E1w?projectId=art-project)

• Theme Connection: Tranquility is a feeling I take away from this painting "Fishing Boat." I can imagine being out on the vast open seas of " The Great Outdoors" baiting my hooks, casting my line, and catching fish. What a fine relaxing way to escape the rigors of everyday life by being out at sea in a big old fishing boat.